Magento has its own stores switcher block. You can use it for your case.
If you look at page.xml layout of base template, you will see something like this:
<block type="page/html_footer" name="footer" as="footer" template="page/html/footer.phtml">
<block type="page/html_wrapper" name="bottom.container" as="bottomContainer" translate="label">
<label>Page Footer</label>
<action method="setElementClass"><value>bottom-container</value></action>
</block>
<block type="page/switch" name="store_switcher" as="store_switcher" template="page/switch/stores.phtml"/>
<block type="page/template_links" name="footer_links" as="footer_links" template="page/template/links.phtml"/>
</block>
So, if you want to show store switcher in footer, you should edit file page/html/footer.phtml
and add bellow code in place you want to show:
<?php echo $this->getChildHtml('store_switcher'); ?>
If you want to change dropdown to links, you should edit template page/switch/stores.phtml
like bellow:
<?php if(count($this->getGroups())>1): ?>
<div class="store-switcher">
<label for="select-store"><?php echo $this->__('Select Store:') ?></label>
<ul id="select-store">
<?php foreach ($this->getGroups() as $_group): ?>
<?php $_selected = ($_group->getId()==$this->getCurrentGroupId()) ? 'active' : '' ?>
<li class="store-<?php echo $_group->getCode()?> <?php echo $_selected ?>">
<a href="<?php echo $_group->getHomeUrl() ?>"><?php echo $this->htmlEscape($_group->getName()) ?></a>
</li>
<?php endforeach; ?>
</ul>
</div>
<?php endif; ?>
**NOTE: Maybe you need flush cache after edit anything in footer because Magento cache footer block by default.